By Jack Bernard
Savannah (Ga.) Morning News, April 2, 2019
State Sen. Ben Watson told his colleagues recently, “I believe that healthcare, or lack thereof depending on where you live, is our state’s largest shortcoming. However, I know that by thoroughly vetting legislation and considering new solutions to increase quality and access to care will help our citizens live longer, healthier lives…”
Watson, a Savannah physician, is correct about the healthcare status of Georgians and that coverage is a “right.” He is also correct that Medicaid is not taken by many physicians due to low reimbursement rates, which limits where recipients can be treated.
Chatham County has an uninsured rate of 15 percent for people under 65. That amounts to 36,000 people.
Georgia currently has 1,375,000 residents who are without insurance, the fourth highest number in the country. Current census data also shows that Georgia’s rate of uninsured is 13.4 percent, much higher than the national average of 8.7 percent. Further, Georgia also has a rate of medically uninsured (under 65) that is more than the national average, 16 percent vs. 11 percent. Many other Georgians are under insured.
By any measure, this situation must be deemed a crisis for our county and state. But, as opposed to what Dr. Watson and others may believe, the answer is not less government via health savings accounts and other Medicaid waiver options Gov. Brian Kemp will explore as part his Patients First initiative. The answer is comprehensive national Medicare for All so that these individuals would get the healthcare that they so desperately need while per capita cost will be more in line with other developed nations, all of which have costs much less than ours.
While the Affordable Care Act is not ideal and nowhere near as comprehensive as a single-payer system, the ACA is certainly better than what existed previously. However, President Donald Trump has done everything he can to increase the number of uninsured and decimate the coverage for many others by throwing roadblocks into implementation. He has tried to gut the ACA, causing premium increases for those covered.
These moves by Trump continue a trend by him to discredit anything and everything that his predecessor, Barack Obama, accomplished without regard for how his own moves affect the taxpayers. Trump once again puts his spite and vindictiveness over the nation’s interests. What a shame; it did not have to be this way. And it still does not.
The 14 red states that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA are now the states with the highest percentage of uninsured. It just makes sense for GOP politicians to want to help their states. This can be easily accomplished by simply having the Federal government pick up the remaining 10 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion. After all, they are already picking up 90 percent. At least we could reduce the number of uninsured while figuring out how to get enough political support to pass single payer, the obvious long-term solution and one that is increasingly being sought by Americans.
According to studies, we have the most religious democracy in the world. At the same time, we are the only democracy that does not have universal healthcare / insurance. Is that abysmal, immoral hypocrisy really what we want to portray to our citizens in Chatham County, in Georgia, in the United States and in the world? We need Medicare for All.
Jack Bernard is the former director of health planning for Georgia and a retired health care executive.
